Important news for the campaign to re-direct military budgets (original report in French, below):

28.May 2014 – Tribune de Genève

GOOGLE TRANSLATION, edited: 800 million francs, which should have gone to the purchase of Gripen fighter aircraft (rejected by the Swiss people in a referendum on May 18) will go to other projects. The Federal Council has decided not to allocate these funds to the army, contrary to the wishes of Defence chief Ueli Maurer.

Reactions of the parties For PLR, this is a logical decision ; for the PDC, it is an error ; UDC fears that the army comes out weakened while the PS is delighted.

The PDC is of the opinion that "it is a mistake to deprive the military of the means ," responded bluntly the president of the party, Christophe Darbellay . He called the decision " a concession to the left."

"The budget for the army has never been lower. In addition, during the campaign, air safety deficiencies have been singled out, also by the left", said he, recalling the case of the flight diverted to Geneva.

" Ueli Maurer could not decide alone to allocate the money from the purchase of Gripen to the purchase of tanks , for example," noted for her part Isabelle Moret, vice president of PLR . "It seems normal that the Federal Council and Parliament decide on the allocation of the fund. "

The Vaudoise representative does not preclude that a part may return to the army at the end of the debate. "But other projects may also need this money," she analyzed .

UDC National Councillor (Vaud) Guy Parmelin expressed surprise : "This decision says nothing of the use of these 800 million francs ." He now expects a "great political bargaining where each will want to get that amount." The army, which has " some gaps " may be "the fall guy ," he said.

"This is very good news ," responded the PS through its spokesman Gaël Bourgeois. "As long as the missions of the army are not redefined, we do not know what equipment they will need," he noted . "What use are 5 billion francs if you do not know what they are for? " he asked.

The Defence Minister hoped to maintain the annual military budget at 5 billion francs , despite the failure of the purchase of 22 combat aircraft. But the government does not hear it that way. For it, it is not " possible in the short term , to fully engage the means initially planned ."

The budget ceiling of the army will be reduced up to 2016 to avoid predictable credit balances. Normally, 300 million francs should have been allocated annually to a fund for the acquisition of the Gripen, which was expected to reach a ceiling of more than 3.1 billion.

Therefore, 800 million offers opportunities to other departments to "advance other priority projects." The Federal Council did not give further details.

It is not true that 100 million will remain in the hands of the Department of Defence, said spokesman Reto Kalbermatten . The annual amounts do not correspond exactly to 300 million per year, so the calculation is not quite correct. Mr. Kalbermatten would not quantify the amount that ultimately will remain.

Joint report

The text specified that "if the fund for the acquisition of the Gripen" does not enter into force in 2014, the DDPS may, in agreement with the FDF (finance) ,use the "Contribution of the acquisition of Gripen funds "to acquire " weapons" material.

Eveline Widmer -Schlumpf does not seem to have made much of the inclinations of her UDC colleague. The press has reported a joint report of the Finance Minister rejecting a compromise proposal from the Minister of Defence who wanted to retain the majority of resources.

Proposal in the autumn

For the years after 2016, Maurer was asked to present the "needs profile", along with his army reform and other projects, by this fall.

The Minister of Defence has decided to wait before making his report, to avoid another refusal . Criticized during the consultation , the reform provides for a personnel downsizing, from 180,000 to 100,000 soldiers. Army training schools would recruit not more than twice a year instead of three time, and the sessions would be shortened from 21 to 18 weeks.

Parties have been fighting since the vote on May 18 to find out what to do with the military budget. The Socialist Party has demanded again on Tuesday a cutback of 300 million from the Defence Dept budget.

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